Nine employees of a New York Nursing Home arrested for negligence that caused the death of a resident and injured several others

A nursing home abuse investigation led to the arrest of nine employees of the Medford Multicare Center for Living, Inc. in Medford, New York, Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced yesterday. (picture). According to the press release, Kethlie Joseph, 61, was charged with Criminally Negligent Homicide for the death of a 72 year old female resident of the Medford Multicare Center.

Joseph was in charge of administering treatment to ventilator dependent residents. She was supposed to connect the 72 year old patient to a ventilator at night according to a doctor’s order. She admitted that she didn’t read the doctor order and never connected the patient to the ventilator. At night when the alarms went on because the patient had difficulty breathing she ignored them for two hours and also ignored messages on her pager when the patient stopped breathing.

Four other employees were also charged in connection with the death of the patient:

a nurse who stood in front of the monitors and didn’t respond to the alarm for two hours and then lied to investigators to cover up

a nurse who falsely claimed to investigators that the patient looked up at her and was alive when in fact she had been dead for hours

an aid who falsely claimed that alarms were not beeping

another aid who was assigned to sit at the resident’s bedside but who wasn’t there and who never responded to the alarms

The administrator of the nursing home as well as the director of respiratory therapy were also charged and arrested because they tried to cover up the incident by concealing computer records documenting the alarms.

Two other employees were also arrested and charged for neglecting other nursing home residents and falsifying documents in a cover up.

A civil suit was filed separately yesterday by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that describes an extensive pattern of resident neglect and systematic corporate looting at the Medford Multicare Center for Living nursing home.